A World of Mobile Broadband
NEW SATELLITE SERVICE OFFERS PORTABLE IP CONNECTIONS AT UNPRECEDENTED SPEEDS.
Satellite communications have become increasingly vital to warfighters deployed anywhere around the world, especially as Internet links provide a growing stream of data and applications for a wide range of missions. Now one longtime satellite communications provider has made connecting to the Internet in the field easier than ever, and a number of other companies are rushing to provide related services and products.
Inmarsat has long provided satellite communications to U.S. military forces through authorized distributors. Its latest service, called the Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN), became available in North America last May after licensing approval by the Federal Trade Commission. BGAN shrinks the size of the satellite terminal required to connect to the size of a laptop while boosting the throughput of the signal to a level never before offered.
“You get a data stream of up to about 400 kilobits per second, up to half a meg actually, of connectivity down to your terminal, allowing you to do voice and data at the same time,” said Jack Deasy, director of civil programs at Inmarsat. “People can have voice and data connectivity wherever they are, under the two Inmarsat satellites that are currently up with the same kind of reliability we have always provided for the Coast Guard community.”
Inmarsat currently has two satellites powering the BGAN service, with a third expected to complete global connectivity with a launch sometime in 2007. One current satellite covers Asia, Africa and Europe; the other, the Americas. The third will extend coverage to the Pacific. Military users can hook up a phone or a laptop to the BGAN terminal and connect to the satellites almost instantly. With BGAN, troops could also literally pick up the components of the system and move to a new location swiftly.
“The previous generation of Inmarsat technology was backpack-sized. So it was portable, but it was fairly expensive and required a good amount of training to use, so the tendency was to focus it at mobile command posts,” Deasy noted. The portability and ease of use of the service enables teams first arriving in a new area to set up immediately and become instantly connected. In the past, warfighters could wait several days for connectivity while satellite dishes were set up.
“Previously, the satellite gear has been big and expensive. It has tended to be used by major organizations,” Deasy said. “The BGAN hardware goes for between $1,000 and $3,500, depending on the capability of the terminal that you are talking about. Voice calls are $1 a minute, which are comparable to international roaming rates and competitive with anything else in the mobile satellite market.”
The flexibility and affordability of the service permit its use for complex operations. For example, Deasy foresees faster coordination for updating maps through transmitting images back to headquarters and simultaneously discussing those images with phone service through BGAN.
Because the service essentially provides a mobile Internet Protocol system, BGAN also can act as an interoperability solution.
“We are seeing innovative companies coming up with basically smart boxes that will take a land mobile radio feed and a cell phone feed, set up a portable cell phone tower, and put all of those into IP,” Deasy noted. “And with BGAN, you can get that back into the main network from anywhere, regardless of whether the networks they would normally use are destroyed or not.”
BUSINESS TOOLS
Canadian firm Stratos Global Corp. has established Stratos Government Services Inc. (SGSI) to sell services like BGAN to U.S. federal civilian and military agencies. The company expects BGAN to become a very popular service for military applications once the third Inmarsat satellite is launched, providing BGAN with truly global coverage, said Bob Roe, SGSI president.
“When you can provide a single integrated solution, particularly for the U.S. government, civilian and military, it becomes a viable solution for them to use. It’s not a regional solution; it’s a solution they can deploy globally, which reduces their lifecycle support. They don’t have to support multiple regional systems; they can support a single global one. That represents a significant savings to them,” Roe explained.
Roe said the new service represents a significant change from past services because it rides on Inmarsat’s own infrastructure. Previous services depend entirely on the networks of land station operators. But since the Inmarsat infrastructure now interfaces with that of distributors like SGSI, the distributors have the opportunity to add more value to the service. SGSI, for example, has developed applications that it believes military units will appreciate.
“We bring a couple of things to that table that other folks don’t. One of those things is an application called BGAN Dashboard, which essentially is a portal that allows the government to maintain configuration management over all of their BGAN terminals. That’s everything from activations to deactivations, monitoring usage, which is critical to them for controlling costs, and also configuring terminals for different types of services,” Roe said.
In addition, SGSI is adding methods to improve efficiencies and quality of BGAN service. Through AOS, a reseller partner, SGSI offers a boosting capability called SkyPipe to BGAN, boosting the system’s speeds to faster than a BGAN terminal could achieve by itself, without additional cost.
“The more efficiently we can send data through the systems for the customer, the better off and cheaper it becomes for them to use,” Roe stated.
The company also is examining innovations it can introduce to specific groups to achieve their particular mission sets. In the case of the National Guard, SGSI is putting together resources to help personnel fulfill domestic damage control assessment and restoration services.
“We are in the process of putting together a nanocell that will allow for first responders— or anybody for that matter that has a GSM phone—to roam onto a small network that is set up in that particular area within a couple of miles radius. That information can be sent through a BGAN terminal through the satellite and back to an area where that cellular call can be completed,” Roe said.
That capability would permit phones to roam onto the BGAN network instantly when no other connectivity is available, quickly providing a powerful utility to maintain communications in an emergency situation.
“Those are the types of things that we are doing to add applications and value for the government,” Roe said. “It’s not just about the BGAN terminal; it’s about what you can add onto that in response to a customer’s requirements.”
SECURE COMMUNICATIONS
Global Communications Solutions (GCS) also offers application packages designed to make the transition from the office to the battlefield as smooth as possible, according to Tim Young, GCS director of satellite phone solutions.
“Everyone gets so comfortable sitting in their office with their phone and their computer and doing their day-to-day business that way, that when they are out in the field where they can’t get connectivity in that manner, they are lost,” Young observed.
“A commanding general gets out into the field, and he wants his phone and he wants his computer and he wants it instantaneously. When he picks up the telephone handset, he wants a dial tone. When he walks over to a computer, he expects to be online without waiting,” he added.
That demand for connectivity has flowed down throughout the military ranks, particularly with today’s soldier comfortable with everyday access at home. BGAN terminals enable soldiers to send e-mail home and chat with family, much as they would do from their own homes or offices. Warfighters can set their BGAN terminals to auto-register and auto-connect with the service as soon as they power up. A small group of warfighters can share access through a router that connects them to the BGAN service.
“We are developing small packages that soldiers can carry into the field that would be a small team interface device, basically. You would have a BGAN terminal and a desktop box that when connected together would allow soldiers to connect their laptops and [conventional] phones or Voice over IP phones. Then they have an office in the middle of nowhere,” Young described. “And it’s all portable, not simply transportable. You can carry it. You don’t need a truck.”
But warfighters also need secure communications as well as instant communications. Inmarsat has tested various encryption devices for the service, Young said, and plans to provide an endorsed list of cryptos for use with BGAN. The satellite service provider has continued to experiment with cryptos as the service has come online live to identify the best ones to use with the service.
“The requirement is to have a Type 1 encryption for SIPRNet access,” Young said. “There are several Type 1 encryptors that are available on the market today. They will all interoperate with each other. They are designed and approved for IT encryption.
“Inmarsat is really focused on developing the service around the needs of the U.S. military,” he continued. “There are other commercial needs as well, but they have put a lot of emphasis on the needs of the U.S. military to be sure that what they are doing is acceptable to the U.S. government and meets the operational needs.”
EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS
Telenor Satellite Services this summer announced its own Emergency Communications Response Kit addition to BGAN service. Tom Surface, Telenor manager of media and public relations, explained that such services are empowered by the way Inmarsat has established interfaced with its network and those of its distributors.
“We provide the service via Inmarsat, and we use our IP backbone for the satellite communications once they have come down from the satellite and go into the earth station,” Surface said. “From the Inmarsat earth station, where the satellite signal comes down, it goes terrestrial the rest of the way, just like a regular phone call or a data call. It goes over Telenor’s IP backbone through our connections into the network.
“This is for mobile, remote communications,” he emphasized. “Say you are trying to talk to somebody in Afghanistan. They would have a BGAN terminal at that end. They would try to contact you back in your office where you are. You would dial them up or they would dial you up. The service would go from their terminal up to the particular satellite that was servicing that area, down to the earth station that services that region of the world. From there, once it is down from the satellite, it goes terrestrial, over the land lanes or whatever you are using straight to your office.”
Building on that structure, the Telenor Emergency Communications Response Kit enables the setup of rapid response communications. The kit, weighing a total of 28 pounds, includes a Hughes BGAN terminal, a solar panel for power, VoIP and ISDN handsets for telephone calls, extra rechargeable batteries and a power adapter, and an accessory kit with domestic and international adaptors. The kit comes in a ruggedized carrying case.
Telenor also offers Terralink, its proprietary IP networking platform and global network. The company anticipates the U.S. military will find that connectivity to be very attractive for warfighting operations.
“The government is a primary user and will continue to be a primary user of this service, particularly for those operations where you need remote communications and that are very transportable and movable,” Surface said. “You can put the terminal in a backpack and be gone.” ♦
